Grave Ghost

by Tia Reed

  “As you will do. Begone, or smite me as you threatened. I will not listen to your wild tales.”

  The djinn tilted a finger at Fenz, the crystals in his knuckles softly aglow. “You. Leave us.”

  “You have no authority here, djinn,” Fenz replied, struggling up.

  “Do I not? Your petty majoria can attest to my power.” The djinn held out his arm. Before their eyes, it shrivelled and blackened into a replica of Levi’s own. The majoria stiffened and the djinn smirked. “Shall I burn you limb by limb, crisp your flesh to cinders until you scream for the privilege of serving me?”

  “Leave us,” Levi said.

  “Majoria,” Fenz protested.

  “Leave.”

  “You heard him, flea.”

  Fenz’s heavy tread registered both his protest and his injury. Now Vinsant was caught. Tripping up the stairs, he shoved at the trapdoor.

  “What are you doing here?” For someone who had just been attacked, the minekeeper’s voice was too indignant.

  “Investigating.”

  “This room is barred to you, apprentice.”

  “I didn’t know, mahktashaan.”

  “Was it not locked?”

  “Yes, mahktashaan.”

  “Is there no end to your mischief?”

  “Father calls it healthy curiosity.”

  “No doubt the majoria will agree.”

  Vinsant opened his mouth, decided it was better not to answer, and shut it again. He sidled down as Fenz waved him aside and mumbled a spell. The door still would not budge. Fenz turned a reproving hood towards Vinsant. “What magic did you weave?”

  “None. I mean I said latchtos to open the door but that was it. I swear.”

  Fenz closed his eyes, swayed, took a deep breath, opened his eyes and descended to the chamber. Were it not for the djinn, Vinsant would have thought his magic had gone astray. Since he was trapped here, he stuck right behind Fenz.

  The djinn was picking at the sickening burnt flesh on his hand. “Deal. You shall have the truth.”

  Fenz held out an arm to bar Vinsant from entering the chamber.

  “What deal would you make, djinn?” Levi asked. “I am majoria, servant of Mahktos, the Master of All, including your kind.”

  Fenz kept very still. His arm was rigid right down to his fingertips. The majoria had to be treading dangerous ground. Fenz looked about ready to challenge him. Vinsant didn’t think he needed to bother. Levi wouldn’t deal if his life depended on it. Not after the Temple of the Rift. Not after the way he had castigated Vinsant for removing his quartz.

  The djinn floated forward, forcing Levi back. His arm still held the illusion of being blackened and charred. “Mahktos is no master to me, nor friend to you. Did he not favour one above you, a boy? A disrespectful, treasonous, coward of a boy.”

  “Hey!” Vinsant protested. A gust swept him off his feet, somersaulted him right over Fenz’s arm and deposited him at the feet of the djinn. Beneath him, the crimson floor emitted a brief, dim glow.

  Sinking to the floor, the djinn placed a heavy foot upon his chest. He pressed, forcing the air from Vinsant’s lungs. “After undying years of devoted service as His majoria.”

  “Help,” Vinsant squeaked.

  “We will not deal,” Fenz said with quiet dignity. He glided towards Vinsant.

  “Not even to win the piddling war? Not even to find the Eye of Mahktos?” The djinn turned to Fenz. “Not even to restore the mines to their former glory? The Empire of the Mahktashaan spread throughout the known world, minekeeper as revered as majoria.”

  Fenz hesitated.

  “Ahh, mahktashaan. Think how history will remember you. How Mahktos would favour you.”

  “What. . . What would you ask?” The man had gone mad. His eyes held the glint of obsession.

  “The Eye, slaves to a god. Find it and destroy it.”

  “The Eye belongs to Mahktos,” Fenz said, but his voice held a plea. He drifted towards Vinsant but gazed at the djinn with vacant, violet eyes.

  The curled toe of the indigo djinn’s vermillion slipper bobbed as he pressed down. Vinsant wheezed trying to suck in air.

  “Mahktos has done without it for millennia,” the djinn said.

  “You would destroy the very thing for which you suggest we should deal,” Levi said, but his eyes also held a fervent glaze.

  The djinn snapped his fingers. The scroll reappeared in his hand. “Its history is here. You would have it in your hands. Your name would be immortalised in legend.”

  “As traitors,” Vinsant croaked. He pleaded with his eyes.

  Levi blinked, and a flicker of loathing cut through his desire.

  The djinn unrolled the scroll. “Ah, one click of my fingers and I could incinerate the clue.”

  “Release the apprentice.”

  “Or what?”

  “Release him and we will talk.”

  “Oh, very well.” The djinn lifted his foot. His kick sent Vinsant rolling towards Levi.

  “I’ll take the scroll,” Levi said. The man was too eager by far. Vinsant scrambled to his feet, concentrated, and prepared to unleash whatever magic he could muster into the room. If he let fly with everything he had, he might cause enough chaos to prevent Levi making the biggest mistake of his life.

  “Deal. Or I’ll take its secret with me.”

  Something was odd about this pact. Vinsant’s eyes flicked to the left alcove. Behind a seal, a crimson eye was sitting on a golden pedestal. “Why do you need us?” he asked.

  “You, you speck of dirt on the behind of a flea, are beneath my contempt. I need you like I need a boil on my butt.”

  Vinsant stepped forward. He was just an apprentice, but he had the smarts to challenge this djinn. “You’ve seen where the Eye is kept. Why do you need us to find it?”

  Levi blinked. “To destroy it.”

  Fenz shook his head. He wobbled, as though recovering from a daze. “That scroll. It bears Guntek’s mark.”

  Vinsant took another step. “If you want to destroy the Eye, Mahktos must have power over you. And I am a vassal of Mahktos. Queen Tiarasae said as much.” He held out his hand. “Give me the scroll.”

  “You are courting a whipping for your presumption, apprentice,” Fenz said over the djinn’s snarl. His return to clarity at that precise juncture just confirmed his propensity for ill-timing.

  A force tugged at Vinsant’s leg and strung him up in the air.

  “Help!” He scrabbled with his arms and managed to catch the edge of Levi’s cloak.

  The majoria blinked, shook some sense into his head, grabbed Vinsant by his robe and tugged him down. “Do you seek to deal for what is already ours?” Standing straight and confident, Levi was pointing at the djinn with his good arm. His crystal was glowing.

  “You can’t take that,” Vinsant said, catching on quick. “Tiarasae said you must play by the rules of her court.” All the tales forbid the djinn from requisitioning anything others possessed. At least not unless they tricked the humans into a deal. And this djinn very nearly had.

  Evil flashed in those vermillion eyes. “No. But can you find it?” He snapped his fingers, his joints pulsed indigo light, and the scroll was gone. He whipped around Vinsant, blowing fishy breath into his eyes and nose and ears. “There is no law to say I cannot make your life unbearable until you submit.”

  The djinn opened his mouth so wide his putrid maw and blackened teeth obscured his face. He blew and his teeth popped out of his gums, becoming missiles that bounced off floor and wall. Vinsant dodged one, and another. The djinn roared and flames leapt around the room, enclosing them, closing in. Vinsant tried to magic water onto the fire but between dodging the teeth that shattered his flickering shield and panicking at the flames, all he succeeded in doing was drenching himself.

  In startling unison, Levi and Fenz gave a single clap and the flames disappeared. The djinn snorted, sending bogeys flying. The snot became slimy winged serpents with gleaming fangs. One dar
ted right at his face. Vinsant ducked, spun and batted at the body of another as it nipped at his robe. Thank Mahktos his garment was loose enough to catch the teeth.

  The crazy serpent nibbled its way closer to his body. Cringing, he tried to dislodge the disgusting creature with thumb and forefinger. It slipped out of his grasp, and snapped at his arm. Fenz sent an energy bolt at it. It sizzled and dropped to the ground. Vinsant started to thank him, but the two mahktashaan were loosing energy bolt after energy bolt at the horde of serpents attacking them.

  A glimpse of movement made him turn. The biggest serpent of all, about the size of his arm, was flying right at his chest. Leaning back, he flicked his hand to create an energy bolt. Nothing happened. He tried again. All he got was a sore wrist. Time to change tactics.

  “Levitos,” he said. His balance was off. Instead of floating over it, he tipped. His legs went wide and the serpent sailed right between them as a rotten tooth whizzed past his shoulder. Vinsant dropped as the serpent met with a bolt from Levi’s finger, right onto the curl of a vermillion slipper.

  The djinn had shrunk so small he was able to stand in a crack between two wall stones. Laughing, he tore a fragment of his nail and tossed it to the ground. The nail became an elongated scorpion with two pairs of pincers, ten legs and three forked tails. The majoria’s magical bolt bounced right off its horned outer armour. Its joints clicking, the insect scurried up one wall and across the roof. It stopped just over Vinsant, bent its upper body backward and released a viscous green blob from its jaws. Vinsant rolled as the blob splattered onto an errant tooth. The tooth dissolved in seconds. Splashes hit his hand and he yelped at the worst burn he had ever felt. He summoned snow to soothe his burns, trying not to think that the insect had dropped beside him. A pincer reached towards his chest. A forked tail arced over the horned body. The two tines parted to reveal a sharp sting. Vinsant crawled on his elbows but the insect scuttled after him.

  “Reconsidering?” Indigo asked.

  “Begone!” Levi demanded, but it was all he could do to dodge the rebounding teeth while distracting the insect from Vinsant by battering it with summoned rocks. The insect didn’t seem to care. Its vicious tail pointed at Vinsant’s chest. Levi summoned his sword, sprang onto the creature’s back, and hacked at the tail. The blade bounced off the exoskeleton. The sting lowered to within a hand span of Vinsant’s heart. Levi leapt over the tail, slashing at the last joint, the one beneath the fork. His sword sailed right through. Green ooze spurted out of the wound as the severed end spun to the wall.

  “Domas,” Fenz said, and Vinsant found himself encased in a protective shield. The ooze sizzled as it struck the violet light. A tooth clanged against it and ricocheted off.

  “Aaah,” Levi yelled as a hole burned in his robe. A tooth clipped him in the thigh, disrupting the perfect arc of his jump. Another tail lashed out and caught him in its fork before he landed. He wriggled as a sting extended from the joint, aiming at his throat. The attack on Levi didn’t stop the insect beating both pairs of pincers against the shield.

  “Sumbek.” Of all the things he could have managed to summon, Vinsant found himself with a blunt practice sword. Just his luck. He tried poking the shield. The light crackled as the tip made contact, but the wood wouldn’t penetrate it.

  “Stay there,” Fenz ordered, slashing at a pincer. His sword didn’t even leave a scratch. The opposite pincer curved around and picked the minekeeper up, pulling him towards the insect’s jaws.

  “Ooooh,” Vinsant said. Out of the slashed tail tip, dozens of baby insects were streaming into the room. From where he was lying, it looked like Fenz and Levi were doomed. “Get me out of here.”

  “With pleasure.” From the safety of his crack, the djinn blew, dispersing the shield with his fishy breath.

  Curling into a ball, Vinsant rolled under the pincers straight into the path of the offspring. Jumping to his feet, he batted at the waving pincers and kicked at the crawling bugs. As though of one mind, Levi and Fenz each threw their sword at the end joint of the limb that held the other. The blades spun into a blur. Guided by flashes of black and violet magic, they cut right through tail and pincer. Still in the severed grip, majoria and minekeeper fell.

  The djinn sneered. “I’ve not had so much fun in, what? . . . a major moon, when I kissed your sister.”

  Vinsant froze. Three of the young crawled over his foot. One dug its sharp sting through his boot. He jumped, hit his elbow on the pedestal and yelped. The jarring pain didn’t stop him marching forward. He couldn’t have looked confident, dodging the hurling teeth, but he kept going until he stood right in front of the crack where the cowardly djinn was hiding. “Take that back.”

  The djinn rolled his eyes. “Oh very well. I haven’t had so much fun since I watched a gang of louts molest your dear, darling sister.”

  Vinsant was gripping his sword so tight, his hand was white. “Come out and fight like a man.”

  The finger-sized djinn floated out and jabbed a finger into the fleshy tip of Vinsant’s nose. “Dimwit. The shadow of my greatness could smite any one of you fleas.”

  Vinsant rammed the sword through his crown. The maddening djinn vanished in a puff of smoke.

  “Imbecile,” came the hated voice from behind him. “Think you will survive this? Deal, and I shall save your precious majoria.”

  Gritting his teeth against the pain of the stings, Vinsant spun. The vile djinn floated on his side, whole, unharmed, unmolested and small enough to avoid the scorpion, while he had to jump to avoid a spinning, rotten tooth. “Why do you want the Eye destroyed, you rotten piece of twice-passed flea dropping?” He tried to ignore the insects climbing up his leg and glanced askew at Fenz instead. The minekeeper halted in disengaging himself from the severed pincer to stare a dire warning.

  With a meaty finger, the djinn poked Vinsant in the chest. The force unbalanced him and he tottered into the pedestal. It rocked. He threw up his arms as teeth clanged against whatever lay beneath the black cloth, tilting it in the opposite direction. “Speck of worm-excrement on the dropping of a flea. Do you dare steal my insults? With you, I deal for the quartz.”

  A winged serpent became entangled in the black cloth. The pedestal rocked onto its base. Ducking first left and then right to avoid two rotten teeth, Vinsant stole at glance at Levi. The majoria had disentangled himself from the tail and was striding towards him, cleaving teeth into two and four and six as he came.

  “Go rot – ” Vinsant started. “Oooo.” Serrated pincers gripped him. He batted behind him, but his sword met air. Legs kicking, he threw the sword right through the djinn. It clattered to the ground and erupted in flame.

  “What danger is the Eye to you, stinking scum dweller?” Vinsant persisted, trying to prise himself free. The pincers descended to the level of the split mandible. Each half ground at the other, and Vinsant was travelling towards them head first.

  “Aaaaahhhh.”

  “Deal.”

  “Levi! Help!” Vinsant flicked his finger in an attempt to release a magical bolt. Nothing happened, his rotten luck.

  Levi severed the head on a winged serpent. “Deal and you are dead, apprentice.”

  “I’m dead anyway. Do something!”

  Levi’s magic word was lost beneath the grating of the sharp jaw, but it threw all the putrid teeth past him right into the mouth of the insect. The creature dropped him as it used all three pincers to pluck the teeth from its face and mouth. As soon as it threw one, Levi and Fenz hurled it back. The unrelenting assault forced the tail-thrashing scorpion into the right alcove. As it hit the wall, it hunched up.

  “Domas,” Levi said. With a series of menacing clicks, the bug lurched forward. A yellow shield barred its exit. It scurried up the shield and down the back wall, trapped. Vinsant scrambled up as a wave of baby scorpions darted at him.

  “What next? A baz’waeel?” The djinn asked, floating on his stomach near the roof.

  Vinsant dashed for the pedestal. Fou
r babies, doubling their size before his eyes, blocked his way. Taking a flying leap over them, he crashed into the pedestal and knocked it to the ground. The irregular angles of the statue poked into his ribs, driving the air from his lungs. Wincing from the pain, he crawled off the wreck, tugging the cover from the statue. Mahktos lay on one face. The eyes on the other two faces creaked open. Crimson beams of light shot out, swinging around the chamber as the eyes moved about. Vinsant rolled under the beams and reached for the feet. His fingers could not grip tight enough to tilt the statue. He looked over his shoulder. Levi was battling the largest scorpion offspring, Fenz a mother of a winged serpent. Eyes popping, face almost drained of indigo, the djinn looked apoplectic. With a flick of his finger, the black drape unfurled in front of him.

  “Levitos.” The statue rocked to its feet. Squinting in concentration, crystal warm against his chest, Vinsant raised the image of the god into the air. The drape rose higher and higher, blocking the djinn from Mahktos’s sight. The baby insects scurried over Vinsant’s body, driving their stings into his flesh.

  “Riptum,” Levi commanded. The drape tore in half revealing the snarling djinn. Two beams of crimson fell upon him. With a furious scream, he vanished in a puff of smoke.

  Vinsant yelped as another sting dug into his hip. He lost control of his magic; the statue crashed to the ground.

  “Dare you to disrespect Mahktos?” Levi demanded. He kicked the insects off his legs, squashing them underfoot with Fenz’s help. Vinsant’s whimpers did nothing to arouse compassion.

  “Lie still,” Fenz said. His crystal glowed violet, bathing Vinsant’s body. The pain subsided from unbearable to teeth-grinding.

  “What was that thing?”

  “It’s called a kaidon. They live deep in the mines. That’s a small one as far as they go.”

  “It’s real then.”

  “So we have just seen.”

  One pair of Mahktos’s eyes was still beaming a dim light into the chamber. The crimson floor responded with a faint glow. Vinsant reached an arm into the light. It delicious coolness slid along his body.

  Fenz crushed the last bug to dust with his boot. “You are lucky these are juveniles, and luckier still Mahktos is bestowing his healing light. The sting of an infant can raise painful welts. The sting of an adult will kill a man within seconds.”